The Lily Pad

Since it is the night before Thanksgiving I thought I should start thinking about what we were going to eat.  Plans over the past month have been up and down and all around.  Thankfully there are turkey giveaways going on all over base and I managed to snag this 30 pounder at the preschool today. I think this year I will try to brine the turkey.  I asked it to get in a big bucket of cold salty water and it got sassy.  I'm beginning to wonder if this "free" turkey was a good idea. After taste testing the toes I think we'll just have hot dogs because I'm pretty sure the gravy from this turkey will just taste weird.

Can you ever forgive me for my super long blogging absence?  I don't know what has been up with my funk lately but I have been emotionally constipated for a few months now.  I think I was in deployment survival mode.  This is the first time a deployment has done that to me.  I am usually a mess of emotion and crazy and it makes for some amazing blogging material, but this time I just haven't felt it.  It was day after day of the mundane and same - and I liked it.  A day without excitement was a good day, it meant I was one day closer to my love and one day closer to not being exhausted.  Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of excitement both good and bad, I just couldn't form words around it to make it work here - so I gave up trying, and it was nice.  It was nice to take a break, to just live in the moment and not formulate the story in my head for the blog.  But now I'm back.  My break is over and I keep being so excited about things ...

Sometimes as adults life can overwhelm and we need to take a much needed pause from our normal pace of life.  That is why there were a total of two posts in July.  Life just kind of got in the way and there was so much to say but I didn't know where to begin or what to say.  I still don't, I just know the blog has been neglected and I don't like it. We are currently in Asheville, NC where we have been taking a much needed rest and visit with family.  I had hoped this trip would be full of excitement and we would be on the go constantly, but we have actually been fairly mellow with some awesome things thrown in and it has been perfect.  My coping mechanism during deployment is to stay busy, to constantly be go go going so that I'm so tired at the end of the day I can't even think enough to be sad.  It's harder to do that with a two year old because when she gets tired and melts down all I can think about is how much it sucks to be going this alone. We ha...

Like how I'm just jumping back into blogging like I never stopped?  Yeah.   Me too... My Mom has been planning this trip to Babyland, USA since I was 16 weeks pregnant and we found out I was having a girl.  It was a tradition for our Nanna to take us kids, and Mom (Madelyn's Nanna) wanted to carry that tradition on.  So last week, we took an adventurous trip with a two year old to place filled with baby dolls.  The whole thing is set up like a hospital with nursery's and babies everywhere! You can tell from this picture just how distracted she was by everything going on!  You haven't lived until you've chased a 2 year old through a giant sized Doll store! Just chilling with her girls!  Do you see the puff of curls on that one on the right? Squeee!!! Mother cabbage giving birth to a new baby! After being completely overwhelmed, picking out one baby and all associated accessories, she decided she wanted a different baby.  It w...

In an attempt to blog more, I'm going to start participating in some of the fun things I see around this here interwebs.  This is the second week of Wife of  a Sailors Friday Fill In!   1. Tell us about your dream job… one that you could do regardless of pay. I absolutely loved the job I had when we lived in CA the first time.  I was the event coordinator for a nonprofit group and it was so much fun.  I planned fundraisers as well as morale events.  It was amazing to see my work directly making a difference in the lives of Marines and Sailors and their families. 2. What is your most prized material possession (kids and pets don’t count!)? This is a hard one.  I find myself attached to different things at different times and "prized" implies that it should be something I'm proud of.  So, my most intimate material possession is my Teddy Bear, but as for pride I would have to say that right now  my sewing machine takes top billing.  I ...

Everyone always talks about how empty their bed seems when their spouse is deployed.  I find the exact opposite to be true.  Here is a list of things in my bed currently: 4 pillows 3 baby dolls 2 pooh bears 1 large teddy bear 3 blankets for the baby dolls 5 books To be added to the bed in about an hour: 1 Daddy doll 1 2 year old 1 Mommy 1 laptop and any other item needed by the 2 year old for tonights slumber. Somehow having my Marine home and in bed is going to be so much less crowded!

Yay?

So I guess you could say that 3Gs is moving.  We are heading over to our new digs at Four Ribbons !  All of your favorite posts from here will be moving over there as well but before we clutter up the place, we'd love you for you to go take a look around. In addition to our new website, we also have an Etsy store and facebook page so look us up!

We are almost to the halfway point of this deployment.  Yay!  But also Boo!  I am reaching that point where I no longer just miss Chris, but I feel like a whole entire piece of me is missing.  I lay in bed and wonder when it will be full again and when I wake up on the weekends I miss our morning cuddles as a family.  It's been 3 months since I've had that and it'll be 4 more before I have it again.  Typing it out like that makes me think of running a race...well, walking it actually, cause we all know I don't run.  We're too far in to give up and just head to Denny's for breakfast, but the finish line is just so far away that I wanna go sit on that wall over there and wait for a ride. To say that I miss Chris is so inadequate, but I cannot formulate the words to express just how deeply it goes.  I am at the point where I'm gonna have to have an ugly cry before I can get better, but the tears just aren't falling hard enough.  I know my othe...

In my quest to leave my frump at the dump, I've been trying to become more active and in doing so, I bought a wii fit.  I love games, I'm competitive and I can do it braless in my pajamas if I so desire.  I was pretty excited that while wii thinks I need to weigh less than I've ever weighed in my adult life, that it calculated my "wii fit age" at 32.  I was expecting 50 or something.  One feature is that you tell it your height and it weighs you and your little person resembles their interpretation of your body shape.  This is OK as long as  you are the only one on the screen. Once my brother and sister in law made their profiles and put in their heights that are taller than me, it made their "miis".  I guess since I was first I got the middle spot, so now whenever I turn on the wii fit, I'm standing between two tall skinny miis and I suddenly look like an oompa loompa. Thanks wii, for making feel like a short fat orange guy with bad pants.

I think I'm a little more than fashionably late to the whole team Edward / team Jacob party, but I did watch New Moon last night and I have to say that I am Team Cullin. I'm not so much for the moody vampire who doesn't want to be a vampire. I thought Edward was supposed to be like a million years old. Shouldn't he be past all this teen angst crap and happy with himself? He glitters for heavens sake! If he were a girl, he'd be saving a ton of money on glitter dust. So while I'm not really digging Edward, you have to admit those inlaws are pretty awesome. All except the ones that want to eat you, but we all have our issues with inlaws. Despite the fact that Jacob and his clan run around shirtless and are totally yummy doing so, they are a pack of dogs. Speaking of the shirtless thing, how do their jeans stay intact or do they just always have a spare pair hanging around? I guess shirts are too much trouble for a man-dog thing. I don't know. Anyway, what was...

Several years ago I was priviledged to meet Medal of Honor Recipient, Lt. John Finn, USN .  I was the coordinator on an event we were having where we were honoring Medal of Honor recipients and when I called him to confirm reciept of our invitation, he informed me that he needed a secretary, or at least somebody to open his mail.  I was struck with how down to earth he was and in the same instance with the demand there was on his time.  Everyone loves a hero.  If you asked Lt. Finn about his service and his medal he would tell you that he was just doing his job.  He was a very humble man. It is on this Memorial Day that I sit back and reflect on those men and women who gave their lives "just doing their job".  It is the humilty, courage, strength, and honor of those service men and women that make me proud to be a Marine spouse.  I think of the families who have lost their loved ones, and the sacrifices they have made.  I pray that I never ...

Ever feel like you're the only one on a see-saw at the play ground?  That's how I've been feeling lately.  Not so much emotionally but more life in general.  I miss my husband every single day, but I feel like I just can't get off the ground.  Overall I'm happy and content and counting along my days down until his return. I've been so busy but I don't feel like I've gotten anything done.  Rooms are still unorganized, piles are still unsorted, clothes are still unfolded...but I barely have time to pop in on my favorite blogs and even less brain cells to leave a coherent comment! I am so excited about upcoming and exciting things that are happening in my life and I feel so blessed right now for the people in my life.

Oh my gosh ya'll!  Why didn't you tell me my pics were so blurry?  I have a goopy eye that doesn't look goopy but it makes my vision blurry so when I loaded these pictures last night, I just assumed that it was my goopy eye making them all blurry and fuzzy! So here are some less blurry pics...

First we have a toddler with a butterfly on her face.  I'm pretty sure she would wear make-up like this daily if I let her.  Butterflies in the floral arrangement for Granny.  She loved butterflies, and I know she loved this arrangment.  sillines  Rolled jeans and red chucks.  Doesn't get any cuter!  A new hat?  This is how I found her after running in the house, she'd grabbed her skirt (an extra one) and put it over her head.  Obviously the roses did fabulously during our trip.  I counted 75 blooms.  I'm blaming exhaustion and a long day at LINKS but tonight I bought Madelyn a fish tank...complete with fancy goldfish, 4 neons, and a frog (duh).  This is our very round, very blurry (apparently) fancy goldfish. But I'm thrilled that the pizza box in is focus.  Deployment cooking at it's best.

I've been hiding in frump for way too long now.  As in 2 years too long.  Today I was digging through the drawer for a sports bra and realized all the frumpy stuff in THAT drawer!  Who has frumpy underthings?  What does that say about a person that even their underwear drawer is frumpy?  No, really.  I have a strapless bra that is being held together with a safety pin.  Yeah.  I think it's time for that to go to the dump. I am once again on a journey to lose weight and become healthier.  My thighs are screaming about it already after doing 3 miles of lunges up hill.  OK, maybe it was barely a fraction of a mile, but it was uphill!  So in order to help keep me motivated, I'm gonna take the frump to the dump and forbid myself to wear any "comfy" clothes outside of the house.  Unless I'm just going to Denise's cause her house doesn't count as the public.  I'm not even going to let my workout clothes be too frumpy dumpy beca...

Even though we are in town for a very sad reason, that's no reason not to get out and have a good time. We have made the best of our visit and on Monday we joined my lovely sister in law for lunch and exploration at the health adventure. Lunch was noodles at The Noodle Shop in down town and Madelyn used chop sticks for the very first time! To say that I am constantly amazed at her ability to learn and to try new things is an understatement. She did better with chopsticks at 2 years old than I did at 20! She never gave up or used a fork, although she did allow me to "telp" her when she started getting tired.

Hey ya'll!  I know I've been laying low in the blog world for a while now.  It's not that I'm not interested in your lives or in telling you about mine, it's just that if something requires more than 3 brain cells for me to read...I just can't spare them. I have so much I want to say, so much I want to write, but the words just aren't there.  I miss Chris, I miss Granny, I miss being able to express what I feel.  So much has happened in the past couple of weeks, I just don't know where to begin, or how to start without acknowledging what has happened. We recently lost a Marine in our unit.  It wasn't during a deployment, but a car accident here in the states.  I can't decide if that makes it more tragic or not.  Somehow it seems like they should be safe here, it's in the war zone where they are in danger, not on the drive home from work.  It's just another reminder of how life can change in an instant.  If you like, you can go read...

I will miss you.